Solving the puzzles when there's nowhere to go

Early Pearl is very much her father’s daughter, an 11-year-old fascinated with words and puzzles. That interest might help her unravel the mystery of her father’s disappearance and reunite their family of four.Early’s father, Dash, worked in the Chicago Public Library. Hoping to provide a better home for his family, he began working after hours, cataloguing books for resale....

Mystery at the museum

Eight-year-olds should not be underestimated. Just ask author Blue Balliett, who says children of that age "have tremendous brain power and are not bound by convention." In fact, Balliett says she couldn't have written her new novel, Chasing Vermeer, without having taught for a decade at the University of Chicago's Laboratory...

State-of-the-art mystery

The art-loving trio of middle schoolers is at it again. In The Calder Game, Blue Balliett's latest art adventure, Calder Pillay, Petra Andalee and Tommy Segovia find themselves in England, on yet another exciting quest. Balliett has devised a best-selling formula that works—kids solving mysteries involving great works of art—but each time she varies the art form, so that each...

Sixth-grade detectives crack the case

After recovering a priceless painting in Chasing Vermeer, there's no rest for sixth-grade sleuths Calder and Petra when their free-thinking teacher tells their class that Frank Lloyd Wright's 1910 Robie House is about to be severed into pieces and distributed to museums around the globe. In Blue Balliett's The Wright 3, Calder and Petra are joined by Calder's old friend, Tommy, who has just...